Out of the Studio

Last week I had mentioned getting a photo sheet made at your local copy store.  I basically, through Photoshop, created a new blank file.  I filled the layer with a radial black to white gradient and reversed it so the inner circle would be white vs. black.  Last week, I had shown this photo with the sheet I had made.  I told them to print it on photo paper, but was unhappy with the paper.  It was rather thin and was a little wrinkled (which ended up actually showing on the photos).  I re-did the job and told them to put it on heavier photo paper.  I also changed the gradient a little so that the circle on the inside was only about 3" wide vs. 5" previously.  The original photo done on the first photo paper from last week is on the left. 

And here's the most recent photo.

I really expected to like the newer photo as I tend to like more contrast, but realize I like the softness of the original better.  So I went back to the 2nd photo and added a light grey translucent fill layer.  Here's what I got (below):

I didn't care for this so much either, so I went back in and made the translucent fill layer a litter whiter (notice how the green is very washed out).  In the end, I'll go back to the first gradient and have it printed on heavier paper.

And one other thing I thought I'd look at - a photo with the piece on a white acrylic panel.  There was no photo editing done on this photo, it was just cropped.  The photos above were cropped and the levels were adjusted.  For most of my bead photography, I use the white acrylic panel.  No color adjustments really need to be made and the photo editing goes pretty quick.  So that's it - now to get into the studio and do some work!